Sunday, June 15, 2014

May was a piece of cake! The Pacific Northwest was in bloom and my choice of 'Floral' as a subject might just as well have been 'Rhody'. The conditions this year made for a brilliant spring bloom for all the fruit trees, dogwoods, hawthornes, labernums, and the like, but the rhododendrons were exquisite. The bushes were loaded with blooms and there was no rain damage. As a result, I found myself searching for variety and although I left quite a few rhody shots on the cutting room floor, the trees got me though - along with a few 'flowers' we tend to ignore.

Some of the rhody's left out:

See what I mean?

With this embarrassment of riches, I took time to play with a few of my favorite shots.

Bearded Iris

I met a man once who hybridized lilies. When asked how he choose lilies to work with he told us that his first love was iris, but the iris blossoms were so delicate and faded so fast it continually broke his heart so he switched to lilies. They are one of my favorite flowers and I see his point completely.

Chives

We have so many amazing and enormous alliums in our flower beds now, we must take a minute to appreciate their less spectacular relatives.

Sometimes we have to look for the flower, especially with grasses and trees...but they are always there.

I have chosen 'Sky' for June, which will certainly be more difficult than 'Floral'. The good news is that I will be heading for Montana near the end of the month so I can look forward to Big Sky Country. Like this...